Volume 1, Issue 2
Table of Contents

Cover Story:
Putting All The Pieces Together
County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef keeps Rockland in his sights as he looks ahead to the Governor's race.

Feature Story:
Everybody's Going Downtown
What four of the county's villages are doing to encourage economic development.

Feature Story:
The Expo's Coming!
Annual Business-to-Business event partners RBA with Mahwah Regional Chamber of Commerce.

DEPARTMENTS:

Economics Roundup
• What's Your Investment Behavior?
• Taxes and Long-Term Care Insurance

Business Roundup
• HVCFI Accepting Applicants
• The Fine Art of Advertising

Retail Round-Up
• It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
• New in Town

Ask the Expert
• Human Resources
• Legal Matters
• Workplace Hotline
• Information Technology

Invest in Your Community
• Make-A-Wish Foundation
• JCC-Y of Rockland's Capital Campaign
• Other News

Odds & Ends
• From The Publishers
• PR Patter
• Reaching Out to Small Business
• Rockland Joins the Empire
• Big News for Local Small Businesses

Dedicated Section:
Rockland Business Association:

The President’s Desk
Empire Zone designation, grant programs drive new opportunities for business.

The Investor Hotline
Avoid these three common mistakes

RBA Happenings
• Other News
• Committee and Council Info
• Calendar of Events
• New Members

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS Local residents in need of cardiac care will soon be in the hands of Edward F. Lundy, M.D. Dr. Lundy, a nationally known heart surgeon, has been appointed Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital’s new Active International Cardiovascular Institute in Suffern, N.Y. Michael Schneiders, Exec. V.P. and Administrator of Good Samaritan Hospital, made the announcement at a press conference and reception in August, telling Lundy, “Welcome to your new home.”

Dr. Lundy, past director at the Open Heart Surgery Program at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, PA since 1991, spoke openly about his vision and goal for the Cardiovascular Institute. His goal includes reducing the rates of cardiovascular disease mortalities in the Lower Hudson Valley, an area which reports 35-50 percent more cardiac related deaths than the national average. He also heartedly expressed how the combined commitment of physicians, administrators and community, expertise and the people themselves, all attracted him to this program.

Active International, a marketing and business solutions company whose network of operations spans 17 countries, recently reached an agreement in principle with Good Samaritan Hospital to establish the Active International Cardiovascular Institute. The Institute will open later this year, and its first open heart surgeries will take place in January 2007. Good Samaritan Hospital is a non-profit, 370 licensed bed hospital providing emergency, medical, surgical, obstetrical / gynecological and acute care services primarily to residents of Rockland and southern Orange Counties in N.Y., and northern Bergen County, N.J. The hospital is a member of Bon Secours Health System, Inc., one of the nation’s leading Catholic healthcare systems. (www.GoodSamHosp.org)

FULL STEAM AHEAD! Martin Ginsburg, founder and principal of Ginsburg Development Companies (GDC), and Captain Richard Hayman, who has 25 years of experience in the cruise industry, share a vision. Both envision the Hudson River, a beautiful waterway, alive with tourists and cruise ships. To help achieve this vision, Ginsburg’s incorporated docks for cruise ships and ferries into new waterfront communities in Sleepy Hollow and Haverstraw. Ginsburg Development is also seeking other Hudson River waterfront opportunities.

In other GDC news… Twenty-one organizations from across the Hudson Valley and Connecticut, including five in Rockland County, received grants totaling $128,500 from the Ginsburg Community Fund, the corporate giving arm of Ginsburg Development Companies. Donations to Rockland groups totaled $29,500. GDC, established in 1964 and based in Valhalla, N.Y., is one of the nation’s premier full-service real estate design, development and management companies. (www.ginsburgdevelopment.com)

MAZEL TOV to the Holocaust Museum and Study Center for celebrating its 18th year of Holocaust education to the Lower Hudson Valley at a Journal Reception being held in early September. This event is the Museum’s largest fundraising initiative, and we only hope it will be a resounding success! During this time, the Board of Trustees will honor 18 Guardians of the Museum, Rabbi Michael Gisser will receive the Shamash Award for Inspired Leadership, and Barbara Scheinson will receive the Ayshel Chayil Award for Community Service. (845.356.2700)

ON THE MOVE “Bird Arising,” the work of Edward Walsh, is a stainless steel sculpture of a bird about to take flight. It has been in the front of the building of Michael Shilale Architects, LLP for the past two years. The sculpture will be temporarily perching in Newburyport, MA, at the Somersby Landing Sculpture Park through the summer of 2007. Michael Shilale Architects, LLP, based in New City, N.Y., helps educational, commercial, residential, municipal and institutional clients, and has successfully completed over 1,500 projects since 1991. (www.shilale.com)

CHEERS to the Provident Bank Charitable Foundation, who has been keeping busy this summer. The Foundation contributed $7,500 to People to People, awarded $1,500 scholarships to 14 high school seniors from across the Hudson Valley as part of its ongoing annual Community Involvement Scholarship Program, and contributed $10,000 to the Veterans Memorial Association of Congers Inc. The Provident Bank Charitable Foundation was established in connection with the second-step conversion of Provident Bancorp, MHC and related stock offering of Provident New York Bancorp, which is the stock holding company of Rockland’s Provident Bank. (www.providentbanking.com)

TALK TO US, DOC Dr. Marvin Fier has been selected to lecture in Copenhagen, where he will speak to distinguished leaders in the dental profession about providing the best possible aesthetics for their patients. With offices in Rockland and Westchester, Dr. Marvin Fier, DDS has practiced dentistry in the New York metropolitan area for more than 30 years. (www.SmileRockland.com)

RENOVATING THE TABERNACLE McLaren Engineering Group, a full-service engineering firm based in West Nyack, N.Y., provided structural and mechanical engineering consulting services for the renovation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s landmark building in Salt Lake City, UT. The Tabernacle is scheduled to reopen in late 2006 or 2007. (www.mgmclaren.com)

KUDOS to James J. Yarmus, P.E., who is the first Rockland resident to become President of the 750-member American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in the Lower Hudson Valley. Founded in 1852, American Society of Civil Engineers (www.asce.org) represents more than 139,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society.

SEEING GLOBAL HVCFI, the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation, Inc., a regional business development and technology incubator in Kingston/Lake Katrine, is now offering international video conferencing services to businesses. The state-of-the-art video conferencing center provides real time communication capabilities allowing people to speak directly with each other as though they were sitting face-to-face.

HVCFI is a not-for-profit business development facility and business incubator that offers both physical on-site mentoring services, as well as virtual mentoring services. (www.hvcfi.com)

FOR BETTER HEALING United Hospice of Rockland (UHR) recently received a $1,100 grant from Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. The grant is to be used towards UHR’s Healing Hearts Family Bereavement Program. Healing Hearts is designed for children and teens, ages 3 through 17, who have lost a loved one. The Healing Hearts Program is part of the Provident Bank Hope and Healing Center. (845.634.4974)

Congratulations to George R. Cox, M.D., medical director at United Hospice of Rockland (UHR) who, in June, was selected as the 2006 Humanitarian of the Year by the Rockland County Medical Society. Founded in 1988, UHR is Medicare certified, NYS licensed, and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (www.hospiceofrockland.org)

SPECIAL HONORS TO BUSINESS WOMEN The Rockland Business Women’s Network (RBWN) recently honored three deserving individuals at their annual awards dinner. Sheryl Santi Luks, owner of Santi Express, was honored as Woman of the Year, Lynn Teger, owner of Teger Commercial, LLC, was recognized for Service to the Organization, and Jeryl Kronish, V.P. and Sr. Financial Specialist for Wachovia Bank, was honored for Length of Service.

RBWN supports and empowers women by providing networking and educational opportunities.
(www.rbwn.org)

HATS OFF to Steve Dachs of Mortgage World Bankers, Inc. as he recently donated $20,000 in sportswear to help the JCC-Y with its $25 million capital fund-raising campaign. Mortgage World Bankers, Inc. is located in New City, N.Y. and offers a wide variety of loan programs to meet people’s home financing needs. (www.mwbankers.com)

THE SHOW MUST GO ON Millbrook Properties recently purchased the Helen Hayes Theater Company complex, thus saving one of Rockland’s most precious non-profit ventures from virtual extinction. The Friends of the Nyacks, a civic association, will lease the theater, with an option to buy it at some future date. RBD

PR Patter is compiled by Rebecca L. Golgoski. If you would like to include news about your company in an upcoming issue of PR Patter, please forward your articles, including any photos, to prpatter@rbdigest.com.